TOP FIVE THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT RECORDS RELEASES
Thirty Days of Night Records was one of the best British labels for heavy music in the 2000s and early 2010s, most notably launching the career of heavyweights Bring Me the Horizon with their very first release in 2004’s This Is What the Edge of Your Seat was Made For. Two decades later, and BMTH is one of the biggest and most influential alternative/rock/metal bands in the world. Other TDON releases include material from Architects, Gallows, Eternal Lord, Hang the Bastard, This Is Colour, Azriel, Brotherhood of the Lake, and so many other great bands. I don’t see Thirty Days of Night getting anywhere near the credit they deserve, and given how influential they were both personally and on the scene, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to do a Top Five on their catalogue. So without further ado…
5. Bring Me the Horizon-This Is What the Edge of Your Seat was Made For (2004)
Given how huge the band is now and how they’ve evolved, it’s easy to forget that they were shaggy-haired kids who were actually quite early on the deathcore train. Of course this release is raw, but that’s a) MySpace era deathcore for you, and b) part of the charm. You can clearly hear the potential as a deathcore outfit, but I don’t know that even the members of the band themselves way back then could’ve envisioned how their career would progress. I’ve done a Top Five article on the band and talked about that evolution, and though I wouldn’t stack this EP among their best material, it is still more than just a footnote and worth checking out if you haven’t.
4. Your Demise-The Blood Stays on the Blade (2008)
As with BMTH above, Your Demise would make the jump to the larger Visible Noise (Lostprophets, Bullet for My Valentine) after this release. If you like really pissed off metallic hardcore, then this EP should be on steady repeat. Absolutely nasty breakdowns, this is spin-kick mosh pit nirvana. Vocalist George Noble reminds me a lot of Scott Vogel, and that’s definitely a good thing. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
3. TRC-The Revolution Continues (2009)
The EP rips out of the gate with the furious "Cocky Is Back," just dripping with naked fury and aggression. "Bastard," the second track, is a metallic hardcore banger about exercising self-control when confronted with a poisonous person and their "sick plots" ("It's just another test, will you rise to this pettiness? / Are you tempted to react? I am tempted to react but I'll hold back / I'll be the bigger man, I'll let it go but I will not shake his hand"). "Diamonds from the Smoke" (which leaves off with a tasty breakdown) and "Sweatbox" are, like a lot of TRC songs, seemingly tailor-made for the gym and also quite long by hardcore standards, but that doesn’t diminish their intensity. The EP closes with the sprawling hardcore epic of sorts in "London’s Greatest Love Story," a song which showcases the band’s versatility, pushing well beyond the standard confines of the genre.
2. Dead Swans-Southern Blue (2008)
Melodic hardcore perfection driven by raw, unrelenting catharsis; there are numerous moments on this EP where they remind me a lot of peak American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost—and that’s an extremely high compliment. After releasing this EP and a split with Architects through TDON, Dead Swans would move to Bridge Nine Records, one of the most important hardcore labels ever, and at that time if not the pinnacle, close to it. Given that the melodic style of hardcore was so predominant at the time, I do think they got lost in the shuffle a little bit, and that’s a shame, because they were really good!
1. Lower Than Atlantis-Bretton (2008)
According to Wikipedia (I know, I know) this EP was first released by Small Town Records (most known for releasing While She Sleeps’s The North Stands for Nothing) before being reissued by TDON two months later, but I can’t find anything on Small Town’s website or discogs.com indicating that to be the case, so we’ll give it to TDON here. This EP is great. Similar to Don Broco and "Thug Workout," it bears very little resemblance to what LTA would become, yet its loose and fun quality of kids basically not giving a shit is a major part of its appeal. There’s a level of wit and self-awareness, too, alongside a kind of exuberant absurdity. Highlights would be the unhinged "The Juggernaut" and "Frankie Goes to Hemel," with its acerbic satire reminiscent of Gallows’s "Orchestra of Wolves." Even though they pretty quickly moved away from this more metalcore sound, you can clearly hear that they already had the ingredients of something special here.